To remotely monitor physical parameters, for example blood pressure, arterial oxygen blood saturation (SP02), heart rate, electrocardiogram, etc., of a patient, a sensor is usually attached to the patient, with the sensor being connected to a transmitter that transmits the patient signals to a central nursing station. Such transmission is usually by hardwire, and more recently wirelessly. At the nursing station, which may either be located in the general ward or in an intensive care unit (ICU) of a hospital, a number of monitors are provided to monitor the patients in the various rooms. There is always a nurse at the nursing station who monitors the physical parameters of the different patients that are being transmitted from the various patient rooms, in order to observe the physical well-being of the patients. Such central nursing station works well in an environment whereby the patients are confined to their respective rooms, with each of the rooms containing the appropriate transmitter for transmitting the physical parameters sensed by the sensor(s) connected to the respective patients.
There is however a trend in the medical field to incorporate wireless communications to provide mobility for the patient. In the medical field, for example in the area of pulse oximetry, one such portable device is a finger oximeter with remote telecommunications capabilities that is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,731,962, assigned to the assignee of the instant application. The disclosure of the '962 patent is incorporated by reference herein. The '962 device is adaptable to transmit patient data to a remote receiver or monitor. Another pulse oximeter that is capable of communicating with an external oximeter via a wireless communications link is disclosed in patent publication 2005/0234317. The remote device for this oximeter is a display. Another wireless pulse oximeter is disclosed in patent publication 2005/0113655. There a wireless patient sensor would transmit raw patient data to a pulse oximeter that processes the data and further configures the data to generate a web page, which is then transmitted wirelessly to a wireless access point, so that the web page may be downloaded by remote monitoring stations that are connected by means of a network to the access point. Another system that remotely monitors the conditions of a patient is disclosed in patent publication 2004/0102683. The '683 publication discloses a patient monitoring device worn by the patient. The patient data collected from the patient is transmitted wirelessly to a local hub. The hub then transfers the data to a remote server by way of a public or private communications network. The server is configured as a web portal so that the patient data may be selectively accessed by physicians or other designated party that are allowed to view the patient's data.
The current systems therefore are focused to the transmitting of patient data to a remote hub or access point and are therefore confined to a specific site from which the patient data may be reviewed remotely. The network or communications link that are currently used are thus either predefined links that transmit information in a particular communications path, or by means of public communications network with a particular server from which selective access may be granted. Yet all of these prior art system are not particularly suited to the above mentioned hospital environment in which there is a need to provide mobility for the patients, as well as the need to monitor the multiple patients. Moreover, there is a need to un-tether the patient from the monitor that is fixed to the room of the patient to provide the patient more mobility, and yet at the same time, allows the care-giver(s) to continue to monitor the physical well being of the patient.
There is therefore a need for a portable device that may be worn by a patient which can wirelessly transmit data collected from a patient.
Further, given the shortage of care-givers, there is a need to reduce the requirement for a particular nurse or care-giver to be stationed at for example a central nursing station, in order to monitor the physical parameters of the various patients. It may also be advantageous to have more than one care-giver who could monitor the different physical parameters of the various patients. It follows then that there is also a need to enable a nurse or care-giver, or a number of nurses or care-givers or other healthcare personnel, to be able to monitor remotely in substantially real time the physical well being of a patient, and/or the various patients in this communications network. To that end, There is a need for a communications network that could receive the data collected from the various patients, and at the same time correlate the different data collected with the various patients. To fully enable the remote monitoring capabilities of the network, a need therefore also arises for a portable device to be carried by each care-giver to thereby un-tether the care-giver(s) from any particular central monitoring location.